There you go, the edited version! Hopefully this is better than the one before, not worse.-.-
Disclaimer: I don't own Prince of Tennis.
A girl around the age of twenty frowned in worry upon the predicament that she had been facing as of late. She had even suffered from terrible migraines due to said predicament. What, you say, might this predicament be?
Getting fired and thus, rendering her jobless.
A very troublesome and disturbing predicament indeed.
'Maybe I could give someone lessons on tennis?' she suggested to herself mentally. The small hope comforted her.
Then, reality came slapping her right on the face - too bad that she was a failure in tennis.
The small hope back then? It died, along with her optimism.
The brown-haired girl groaned quietly as she laid her head on the small coffee table, staring into space once more.
It wasn't like she wanted to get fired in the first place, and it wasn't her fault that the woman's seducing act traumatized her to the point of causing her to trip and pour spaghetti all over the very same lady's expensive dress.
What she couldn't believe was that her boss was actually seduced by that - that rich, snobby woman! The woman was practically two times his size, damn it! She would have assumed that it must have been because of the woman's obvious wealth, but the flirty comebacks and the look that implies everything that he kept sending to the rich woman? Well, they told her otherwise.
She groaned once more; enough of those flashbacks. She had more crucial things to worry about, like say, finding a new job. She did not want her grandmother to worry, goodness no, that sporty woman already had enough to worry with her new recent batch of tennis regulars. But seriously, was her grandmother ever going to consider retirement?
She dared not even ask her grandmother about it, fearing that the stubborn person her grandmother was, she would decide to postpone her retirement for another three years just to prove to her that she was still, in fact, as strong as she was back in her younger days.
She let out a sigh; truth be told, she had wanted to open up a bakery shop. It was her life-long dream, but she hadn't the money to rent a shop. Therefore, she decided to work as a waitress for the time being, in hope that she would be able to save up enough money to rent one. The wages weren't exactly high, but it was still decent.
But what now? Her bakery shop would simply be a figment of her imagination if she continued to remain jobless.
She had already checked the job column in the newspaper and currently, no shop was in need of an extra waitress. The other jobs that were posted in the column either had high expectations or just simply not fitting for her, who was quite the clumsy person.
If a miracle didn't happen, she would have to kiss her dream shop goodbye, which was harder to do than it seems.
The brunette snapped out of her thoughts and straightened her posture immediately when she realized that her cell phone had been vibrating for a while now.
She paused and stared at the screen of her cell phone before answering the call hesitantly, "T-tomoka, hello."
"GOD, SAKUNO! I THOUGHT YOU FAINTED OR SOMETHING! WHY DIDN'T YOU ANSWER THE PHONE?" yelled Tomoka from the other line of the call.
The brown-haired girl winced, quickly pulling her cell phone away from her poor sensitive ear. Even after so long, her best friend was still the loud mouth she was back then. Not that it was a bad thing - well, to her it wasn't. Albeit most having thought otherwise.
"I'm fine, Tomoka," she calmly reassured her friend. "I was just spacing out."
"Eh? Still worrying about your jobless situation?"
Sakuno deadpanned. So nice of Tomoka to remind her. Letting out a sigh, she mumbled out a 'yes'.
"Don't worry my dear Sakuno-chan! I found a job for you!"
Her face lit up in an instant; thank you, Tomoka!
"What is it?"
"IT'S ABOUT BABYSITTING -"
Thud.
"... Sakuno-chan, are you okay?"
A pregnant silence.
"Tomoka?"
With a sheepish voice, Tomoka replied, "Yes?"
"Inside voice."
"Oh, ahem, right, sorry. Anyway, what I was trying to say was that you could babysit. You like children, don't you?"
Sakuno lifted herself off the ground and sat back down on her chair, rubbing her aching back before replying nonchalantly, "Yeah, sure."
Tomoka giggled excitedly.
"Then you would love babysitting Ryoma-sama's nephew!"
Sakuno blinked indifferently, "... Who?"
A loud gasp could be head over the phone.
"You don't know who Echizen Ryoma is?" asked Tomoka in pure disbelief.
A short pause, then -
"Ah, the one in the Ponta ad?"
...
"... Sakuno-chan, do you want the job or not? There must be thousands of girls fighting for the job, you know."
Brown eyes shot wide open.
"How much do they pay that thousands of girls would fight for the same job?"
"It's not just the pay - oh forget it. Just meet me at the park where we usually meet up, twelve o'clock sharp, you hear?"
It was one minute past twelve.
And still no sign of Sakuno.
Tomoka was an impatient person. Tapping her feet incessantly with her hands folded across her chest, she would whip her head from left to right from time to time in hope of seeing a certain friend of hers.
Sakuno, despite no longer being the shy and introverted person she was (though apparently still the quiet one), was still accident prone and bad in direction-wise. She was no longer known as the girl who has pig-tailed hair, for she had grown too old for the said hair style. Instead, she had cut her hair to a neat shoulder length and rarely ties or braids her hair up ever since then. Tomoka, herself, had also grown out of her two ponytails and now tied her hair into a single ponytail.
"That girl is one minute late..," she grumbled under her breath.
Right on cue, Sakuno came running towards her, stopping to pant out of exhaustion after having to run to their meeting place. Not to mention that she had gotten herself lost at first - thank God there was someone to ask for directions.
Before she could even explain herself, Tomoka snapped.
"YOU'RE LATE, RYUUZAKI SAKUNO!" Sakuno flinched at her friend's outburst and was about to explain when she was cut off yet again. "Come on, we're going to be late!" exclaimed Tomoka, impatiently.
She was just one minute late...
Letting out a defeated sigh, Sakuno reluctantly let herself to be dragged by her impatient friend. For the sake of her shop, for the sake of her shop, for the sake of her shop...
Then, she froze.
"Whoa," Sakuno said, breathless at the sight of the grand mansion that supposedly belonged to that Echizen Ryoma.
"Yes, yes, wow. Come on, we're late!" Tomoka whined.
When they rang the bell by the mansion's grand doorstep, a butler immediately opened the door and allowed them to enter. Sakuno continued to gawk at the place - the floors were sparkling, the walls were sparkling - what the heck, even the butler was sparkling.
As the butler led them to the grand hall, Sakuno stared at the large golden chandelier that was hanging from the ceiling in awe. She was snapped out of her trance when Tomoka elbowed her slightly on her side.
"Sakuno-chan, snap out of it! We're entering the grand hall!" she hissed.
Sakuno nodded rigidly.
The grand hall was large, but had warm, cosy feel, which was weird. Perhaps it was because the room was filled with thousands of girls -
"Whoa."
When Tomoka said thousands of girls were after the same job before, she wasn't kidding.
Did that not also mean that her chances of getting the job being one in a million?
Sakuno blanched.
"Passing through, s'cuse me, s'cuse me!"
She turned to the direction of the voice, finding a breathless girl fighting her way out of the crowd. She was wearing a formal suit, which was quite odd when everyone was wearing casual clothing - well, other than the butler, of course.
When the girl finally found her way out of the dense crowd, she took in a deep breath, running a hand through her messy black locks.
"God, why did I even apply for this job in the first place?" she mumbled under her breath.
Feeling a pair of eyes on her, the girl looked up, catching Sakuno off guard. The girl, who looked a year or two older than Sakuno, quickly straightened her posture and plastered a business face on.
"Yes, miss?"
Sakuno blinked.
"A-are you okay?"
The black-haired lady blinked as well before smiling weakly.
"Well, I've been through worse. I'm Echizen-san's secretary, Miyamoto Shiori. You are?"
"Ryuuzaki Sakuno, and this is Osakada Tomoka. She's the one who introduced me to this job - Tomoka?" she turned to find that her companion had disappeared into thin air.
Nonetheless, she found the girl chatting excitedly with a group of girl not long after that. A sweat drop rolled down the back of her head. Tomoka always had been the outgoing and talkative one.
"That's your friend? She looks even more excited about the job than you to me."
Sakuno laughed nervously.
"Oh no, she already has a job. She's a doctor, you see. She just likes to mix around with people."
Shiori coughed awkwardly, "I can see that."
"So, why were you in the crowd anyway?"
"Oh right. Do you happen to see a tall guy with really spiky hair?"
"Um, no, I don't believe I did."
Sakuno blinked in bewilderment as the black-haired girl resorted to grumbling under her breath, hearing the words 'darn' and 'that Momoshiro' in between the lines.
"Hey Sakuno-chan, I heard some awesome gossip about - hey, who are you... and why are you dressed so formal?"
Shiori deadpanned.
"I'm Echizen-san's secretary, Miyamoto Shiori," she said, as she turned to look from left to right. "Did you by any chance saw a tall guy with spiky hair, Osakada-san?"
"How did you know my name? Are you a stalker?"
Sakuno sweat dropped when she saw Shiori twitched.
"Ryuuzaki-san here told me, now will you please answer my question?"
"Sheesh, impatient much?"
"... I don't like you," Shiori responded, bluntly.
Tomoka growled and retorted angrily, "Well, I don't like you either!"
Sakuno looked back and forth at the two fuming girls helplessly. She sighed; all she wanted was to get a job.
"That's it, I'm leaving. I still have to find that person," the black-haired girl grumbled under her breath.
Nodding at Sakuno in acknowledgement while ignoring Tomoka blatantly, she then walked off back into the huge crowd of girls. Tomoka stuck her tongue out at her as soon as she left.
"Good riddance. I don't like that girl, hopefully we won't see the likes of her again."
Sakuno sighed. How did she get herself into this mess?
Momoshiro stared at the amount of girls crowding up the grand hall and sighed. That Echizen was famous as ever, so it seemed.
"Momoshiro!"
He looked around to find the source of the voice, finding Ryoma's secretary squeezing herself out of the large crowd and walking over to him, panting and wheezing like no tomorrow.
"Wow Miyamoto, you looked like you ran in a marathon or something."
Shiori glared up at the spiky-haired twenty-one-year-old heatedly.
"Is this how you speak to your elders?"
"Well sorry," Momoshiro rolled his eyes. "Who got you in such a bad mood?"
"Never mind that, where's Echizen?"
Momoshiro shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know, tending to Yuuki's every need?"
Shiori slapped herself on the forehead.
"You're not helping at all. If we don't get him out here soon, those girls are going to wreak havoc!" she exclaimed, her hands flailing animatedly.
"Calm down, Miyamoto! Your panicking isn't exactly helping either!"
"Fine! Momoshiro, try stalling the girls while I go find Echizen!"
Before he could even so much as have a say about her plan, the black-haired girl already ran out of the grand hall in search of Ryoma. Momoshiro was left with his mouth gaping wide open as he stared at her retreating figure.
Letting out an exasperated groan, he turned to face the large population of females that was currently in the hall with a forced smile plastered on his face.
Why, why did he have to be Ryoma's manager?
"Okay, calm down ladies! Ryoma will be here with his nephew in a moment, so be patient."
Momoshiro twitched when the girls merely ignored him. He sighed in defeat.
"Today's going to be a long day...," he muttered under his breath.
Soon enough, the girls became impatient.
"WHERE'S RYOMA-SAMA?"
"YEAH, WHERE IS HE?"
The room immediately became silent when a man with black hair and brownish golden eyes entered the room with a baby in his arms. The sight of him got the girls to start shrieking and squealing excitedly, and Momoshiro had to run in front of him in fear that some of them decided to jump on the famous prodigy.
Meanwhile, the baby's purple eyes scanned around the room in hope to find someone, but to no avail. He began tearing up and eventually started sobbing.
"There, there, Yuuki! Don't cry! Look at Momo!"
Momoshiro proceeded to make the funniest face he could muster. However, the results were exactly the opposite of what he was hoping for. With that, he found a nice corner in the room and began emitting a sullen aura.
Ryoma stared at Momoshiro in silence. He didn't think that that manager of his would stop brooding anytime soon. Thus, he resorted to his secretary, who instantly knew where he was going and walked to the front of him. Clearing her throat loudly, she managed to get everyone's attention on her.
"Today, you are all gathered as all of you are hoping to get the job you have in mind. However, with the amount of people standing in this very room, we will need to reduce the amount before we can properly pick a babysitter for Yuuki-san here. Therefore, there will be three rounds," she paused, pointing up three fingers to prove her point. "... Where all of you will have to compete with each other, and the set amount of winners will proceed to the next round. Different rounds have different tests and those who are caught cheating will be disqualified. Further explanation will be given right before each round. Is this understood?"
A few murmurs could be heard going around the crowd, but most were already nodding their head in excitement.
"Did you hear that, Sakuno-chan?" Tomoka whispered into her friend's ears; excitement could be heard in her voice. "This is going to fun! Don't worry, I'll cheer you on at the sidelines!"
Sakuno wasn't exactly the happiest person in the world right now.
'I just wanted a job...'
Chapter 1 edited version: Done!
Fast, don't you think so? :D
I've changed a few things in the plot, so don't go expecting too much similarities with the one before. :)